Boris Johnson is making 'impossible' Brexit promises that could ruin Britain's negotiations

Boris Johnson.
Yana Paskova / Stringer
Boris Johnson is making impossible promises about what Britain will be able to negotiate when it comes to Brexit talks with the European Union.

That is according to a number of European leaders, who have criticised for British foreign secretary for dubious claims he has made over the last few days about what a post-Brexit relationship with the EU could look like.

Dijsselboem was referring to the claim Johnson made in an interview with Czech newspaper Hospodářské Noviny that Britain will likely leave the customs union after Brexit but continue to trade freely with the 28-nation bloc. The customs union is a group of states that move goods to one another without imposing any tariffs.

"I think he is offering to the British people options that are really not available," the Dutch minister said.

"For example, to say we [the UK] could be inside the internal market and keep full access to the internal market and be outside the customs union... This is just impossible — it doesn't exist."

He added: "The opposite does exist. We [the EU] have a customs union with Turkey and Turkey is not part of the internal market. So he is saying things which are intellectually impossible, politically unavailable. He is not offering a fair view of what is ahead, what is available, and what can be achieved in these negotiations."

Here is a clip of Dijsselboem criticising former London mayor Johnson.

Johnson, who Theresa May appointed foreign secretary upon succeeding David Cameron as prime minister, has also come in another round of criticism from the EU Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt.

The former Belgian prime minister tweeted saying he "can't wait to negotiate" with Johnson so he can educate him on the Treaty of Rome, an international agreement that led to the formation of the EU in its earliest form. This was after Johnson suggested, not the first time, that the free movement of people is not a fundamental EU principle.

In the same interview with Hospodářské Noviny, the foreign secretary described the idea of the free movement of EU citizens being enshrined in the Union's founding treaties as a "myth," "nonsense," and "b----cks." He also repeated his claim that Britain will be able to retain full membership of the European Single Market while restricting inward migration from the EU.

This sort of Brexit deal has been categorically ruled out by pretty much every senior EU official. When Business Insider interviewed Verhofstadt earlier this month, he said letting Britain curb EU migration and retain full market access is a deal that "doesn't make any sense."

"The basic position of all the institutions in Europe is very clear: The four freedoms are bound to each other. The internal market is based on four freedoms — not three, or two. Goods, services, capital, and the free movement of people. You cannot separate them. I think this is a perfectly firm and clear position for everybody.

"It's easy to say, 'Yeah, we want a special passport for people working in our services to go and work in Europe,' for example, but the opposite, like the possibility of Polish people to work on a construction site in London, is not possible. This just doesn't make any sense."

Carlo Calenda, the Italian minister, told Bloomberg that he said "no way" when Johnson claimed Britain wanted full market access and exception from the free movement of people commitment. He also accused the foreign secretary of insulting him after suggesting Italy would be forced to sell "less prosecco" if Britain leaves the single market.